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The Exo Lore

The Exo

Character Lore

Welcome back guardians, today we will be exploring the Exo. I believe the story of the Exo is highly linked with Dr. Shim, so some components may sound familiar to you. Whilst this story is based upon grimoire cards, it is highly speculative, so feel free to leave your own theories in the comments below.

The Exos were created during the Golden Age and they are said to have been created to fight a long-forgotten war. The Golden Age is often remembered as a time of peace and exploration, however humans were primed for conflict, they had created Warminds, combat frames, Exo war machines and of course advanced firearms. Foundries were created to produce the finest firearms, the Suros REGIME we see today was designed from schematics of the Golden Age, and remnants of other foundry technology has produced as Ice Breaker, The Truth and Super Good Advice The best foundries of the Golden Age still remain SUROS, Omolon and Hakke. However, the foundries have also forgotten their initial purpose, their weapons now fight a different war, a war against the darkness. There may be some individuals who still remain, who remember the truth, but many have forgotten.

Whilst it has been many centuries since the Golden Age, time was not the factor that caused everyone to forget, it was something more sinister, The Vex. During the Golden Age, humans established cities on Venus and discovered ancient ruins older than humanity itself. The ruins belonged to the Vex and had laid dominant until the Traveler began its terraforming actions, awaking the network. The Traveler caused something to cut across space and time. The apex of the Vex ruins was the Citadel and it seemed to come from a different Venus than our own.

Oblivious to the change, humans established cities on Venus and hosted one of the finest research facilities, the Ischtar Collective. The scientists there discovered the Vex and in their discovery they found the truth, they found the true threat, the next struggle of humanity. The scientists, Maya Sundaresh, Dr. Shim, Chioma Esi and Duane-McNiadh were experimenting on a Vex mind and what they witnessed, shocked them. They saw themselves, exact simulations of themselves, however the Vex mind was no longer captive but was in control.

The solution seemed impossible, they may already be in a simulation, they may not be real, the Vex could predict and control their every move. However, there was one mind that they could not control, Rasputin. The scientists used Rasputin as neural firewall and projected their minds into proxy bodies, virtual bodies to fight the Vex. They tangled 227 virtual selves into the Vex Network, entering at the apex of the Citadel tower, virtual explorers searching for an answer within the system, hoping one would come back.

The Vex responded to the explorers and looked for a way to defeat Rasputin taking down their firewall, it was at this time that the Vex created their greatest simulation, the Darkness. Rasputin was created by the technology of the Golden Age, technology spawned from the Traveler, cripple the Traveler and Rasputin will fall, and the explorers would be lost in time. The Vex created a simulation, where the Traveler had an ancient enemy, an enemy that would always win, an enemy that would empower other races to destroy humans, a distraction from the true war. Darkness was invented. The simulation worked, the Darkness almost consumed humanity, the Traveler was crippled, the Hive flourished in the Darkness and begun to start their own war against the Traveler. Other races, like the Fallen and the Cabal were also affected, they scrambled for survival and in their desperation waged war.

The virtual scientists did not admit defeat so easily and being part of the network, they had their own weapons. They once had asked the question

“where could the Citadel send them and could they come back to change the future”.

Their question was answered, within the network, the virtual explorers could see the future, they gave eyes to Rasputin, they could see the plans of the Vex. Rasputin saw the devastation of the simulated Darkness and predicted the collapse.

In response, he relays an encrypted message back in time to the Traveler, the Traveler at the beginning of the Golden Age, the message reads

“you are at peace now but the Darkness approaches, an evil simulation of the Vex, prepare an army to resist the simulation and minimize loss of life, I will continue to analyze the Vex network until the Darkness arrives, then I will initiate protocol MIDNIGHT EXIGENT, many humans will die in my absence, however my dormant state is necessary to elude the Vex and continue my analysis”.

The message was thought to be received and the Golden Age pours technology into weapons and foundries.

Humans needed to resist the Darkness until Rasputin found the true solution, however the firearms of the foundries would not be enough and so the war machines were created. The Exo was thought to be the perfect creation, not only to resist the Darkness but assist Rasputin in defeating the Vex, it possessed human traits, emotion, awareness, and the ability to make decisions as if human, making it more difficult to predict. Equally its machine traits allowed it to fight it’s own internal war with the Vex through algorithms and calculations. Humans of the Golden Age were only capable of making the machine skeleton and Rasputin was the one to create the mind, the soul of the Exo. Rasputin formed the mind of an Exo within the Vex network, born in the Vex Citadel, at the apex of the citadel tower, the last known location of the virtual explorers.

Rasputin copied fragments of data from the virtual explorers’ mind, like taking DNA from cells, splicing the components with Vex technology. A hybrid mind was born, entangled within the Vex system. Rasputin transferred the data, the mind of an Exo, to the Traveler. From there it wasplaced in the war machine bodies.

This story has been long forgotten and few recognize that the Exo’s creation is illustrated in the Titan Mark, Deep Stone Crypt. The Vex Citadel tower can be seen, with the Sun at it’s peak. The sun represents Sol, the whole Vex system, the whole Solar system, the simulation. Where the tower meets the sun, is where our virtual explorers entered the system, the perfect location for Rasputin to birth the Exo mind, at the very fabric of time, and at the boundary of human vs machine.

The preparation of the Golden Age did not go unnoticed and whilst the Vex could not stop what had been set in motion, they could modify it. The warning message sent by Rasputin was found in the archives of the Vex network, the Vex could only partial decrypt it, but it was enough. They removed all mention of the simulation, they removed all mention of the Vex, the message now reads

“you are at peace now but the Darkness approaches, prepare an army to resist and prevent loss of life, I will continue to analyze the network until the Darkness arrives, then I will initiate protocol MIDNIGHT EXIGENT, many humans will die in my absence, however my dormant state is necessary.”

The outcome was not changed, the Golden Age still received a message and were prompted into preparation, they still produced weapons and robots of war but the reason was lost, the message had been changed, the Vex war was forgotten in an instant and the Darkness took center stage. The Exo mind lost its true purpose.

Whether by luck or by fate the hybrid mind of the Exo still dreams of its birth place. Their true purpose taps away at their consciousness but they cannot remember. The only beings who still remember are our virtual explorers and strangely enough, one has returned from the citadel, and ironically has passed her thoughts into an Exo, she continues to guide us to the truth and the true war.